Leaps Forward

News on the environmental front for the last few years has been consistently dismal, but recent innovations may delay the environmental catastrophe forecast by climate researchers.

Though most Americans are too distracted to notice the urgency of global climate change, the few people who have managed to stay focused are coming up with good ideas. From titans of modern business such as Google, to innovative energy producers, to techie projects like MIT’s Vehicle Design Summit, visionaries are beginning to lay the groundwork for huge leaps forward in energy generation and energy efficiency. These technologies have the potential to overcome America’s frustrating inertia on environmental issues, fueling consumer excitement and easing the transition to a cleaner American lifestyle.

Except in extreme cases, imploring people to conserve—by turning off their lights, turning down the heat, and walking to work—won’t do the trick anytime soon. Climate change is a gradual process, although it will definitely yield extreme results over the long run. The slow pace of change means that most people cannot grasp the urgency of the problem. It will take more than the pleas from rich, “enlightened” environmentalists to frighten average Americans to trade in their SUVs for a Prius. Change won’t come from a government so beholden to corporate pressure that it’s “new” automotive efficiency standards still lag far behind those of most of the rest of the developed world.

Barring a quantum leap forward in energy efficiency, the improvements necessary to significantly shrink the country’s carbon footprint would involve fundamental adjustments in how we lead our lives. So these conscientious entrepreneurs took it upon themselves to deliver a quantum leap forward.

Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org promised to produce enough energy to power a city the size of San Francisco, one gigawatt, in the coming years, according to the New York Times. They have teamed with two firms to develop solar energy based on heat generation—which has the potential for greater energy production than photovoltaic cells—and to harvest the abundant energy of high-altitude winds. Google’s goal is to bring the cost of its renewable energy below that of today’s cheapest, but most environmentally harmful option: coal.The search is on for what a McKinsey analysis calls “breakthrough innovations”—the sort that could reduce greenhouse gas output far beyond today’s optimistic projections.

One such technology is the magnetic levitation wind turbine, a colossal rotating structure that uses magnetic levitation to minimize friction and reduce inefficiency—the same principle that allows maglev trains to travel at very high speeds. The technology was debuted in a 2006 energy conference in Beijing, but is now being pushed in America as an alternative to expansive wind farms.

The companies building magnetic levitation wind turbines claim they can operate in winds as slow as 3 mph and produce one gigawatt of power, with much greater efficiency than a typical horizontal-axis turbine. Best of all, Maglev Wind Turbine of Sierra Vista, AZ promises a one year return on investment.

The prospect of a single wind tower generating far more energy than an entire wind farm, which many consider aesthetically unappealing, means that magnetic levitation turbines could overcome an important objection that has historically prevented the expansion of wind energy in America.

Of the many negative-cost investments highlighted in McKinsey’s recent report “Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost?,” switching buildings to more efficient lighting technologies is near the head of the pack, meaning that the longer we wait, the more money we lose (or don’t save). According to the report, installation of light emitting diodes (LEDs), the industry’s standard-bearer, in residences saves the American economy $90 for each ton of greenhouse gas it eliminates.

But a technology discussed in September’s Economist Technology Quarterly will make LEDs seem like a thing of the past. Whereas LEDs use only 15 percent of the energy put into them to create light, and old fashioned incandescents use only 5 percent (the rest becomes heat), these new bulbs convert over 50 percent of their energy input into light. Other advantages include that they don’t require the toxic chemical mercury and almost never burn out.

But perhaps the most exciting breakthrough on the horizon is one being proposed by our engineering friends down Mass. Ave. The Vehicle Design Summit is pooling creative and technological prowess from around the world to build a “hyper-efficient 4-6 passenger vehicle…that will demonstrate a 95 percent reduction in embodied energy.” If all goes to schedule, a prototype will be assembled by President’s Day 2008 and an environmentally-friendly production line will be up and running before we begin class next year.

This plan may sound ambitions. It should. It’s one of many big promises, none of which is guaranteed to succeed. It would be naïve to expect that alone any of them could reverse the course of global climate change. But if they do become realities, these are the kinds of ideas that have the potential to change our world in a radical way, and that in concert with other breakthrough technologies may have a significant impact on worldwide emissions. A carbon-free future is not the Jetsons-type scenario that one might imagine; it’s what happens when it’s not only environmentally friendly to be green, but also when it’s economically disastrous not to be.

In the meanwhile, please keep recycling and turn off the lights when you leave a room.



Jonathan B. Steinman ’10, a Crimson sports editor, lives in Winthrop house.